By Mark Vester
Kevin Cunningham, trainer of IBF junior middleweight champ Cory Spinks, saw Floyd Mayweather's split-decision win over Oscar De La Hoya as one of his easiest.
In an interview with the St. Louis Dispatch, Cunningham spoke about Mayweather's performance. As most predicted before the fight, Mayweather would have too much speed for the bigger man in De La Hoya, which according to Cunningham was Floyd's key to victory.
"I think Mayweather handled him easily," Cunningham said. "He just had too much hand speed, his defense was too good. That was one of Mayweather's easiest fights."
Spinks' inability to land big fights has forced him to move up in weight to fight the only top fighter willing to fight him, WBC middleweight champ Jermain Taylor. The two clash on May 19 at the Fed-Ex Forum in Memphis.
"Cory has to take on big challenges, big risks to get in the mix of all the big-money fights," Cunningham said. "We can't put a gun to their head and make them fight Cory. Here's the only opportunity Cory has to fight a marquee fight. He has to move up in weight and fight Jermain Taylor to do it. If we don't take on a challenge like Taylor, where do we go? Fight a no-name? Even if we took an easy, no-name fight and brought it to St. Louis, who would pay to see it? We accomplish nothing by fighting a no-name guy. What are we to do, sit and do nothing and let his career rot away? We've got to do what we've got to do and step up and take on challenges."
Cunningham and Spinks are not taking Mayweather's recent retirement announcement seriously. They feel that a win over Taylor will set the stage for Mayweather possibly moving up to 160-pounds to challenge Spinks in a bout that could land Floyd his sixth title in his sixth weight division.
"If Cory takes care of business on the 19th," Cunningham predicted, "Mayweather will be ringing my cell phone before I get out of the ring."
